Report notes Intel's ultrabook woes

A roadmap, seen by TechEye. has revealed that Intel is having huge problems getting its Ultrabook form factor out in the way it wants.

While Chipzilla has been claiming to the world plus its dog that the Ultrabook is good to go, it would appear that anyone who buys one in the next year is asking for trouble.

Intel has been selling the idea that Ultrabooks are super-sexy, respond with a wave of your hand, allow you into Facebook in a second, know you and your data, gives safe and easy access to apps content and never keeps the user waiting. All this is supposed to be done to fit a baseline BOM of $699.

The Ultrabook is going to be in a holding pattern before the Haswell chip appears in 2013.

Intel notes that while there is support out there for Ultrabooks, reviewers are not happy with the way the Ultrabook design has turned out so far.

In other words, Intel appears to be adding stuff on the hoof to match its chip development, rather than what else is going on in the mobile computing industry.

The report suggests that next year will see an Ultrabook which is still a bare bones project – “ultra thin, Instant on, have responsive applications, multi tasking PC performance, great graphics and anti-theft devices”.

The report lists all the costs for all the bells and whistles that an Ultrabook needs. It says that for the Ultrabook to succeed they need thin designs, all day battery life, responsive voice functions, HD camera and screen, always fresh data, robust wi-fi, wireless display and multi-touch pad.

However, none of these are on the Ultrabook roadmap until 2013 with the arrival of Haswell.

Users will see that many of these features are on the Windows reference tablet, which will have a keyboard. This means that the Ultrabook concept will be two years behind tablet development.

While the Ultrabook will have a much faster chip, many analysts think that this particular battle will be won on battery life, applications and add on gizmos.